


I Told My Wrath

by boomerbird10



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Pre-Relationship, just soft fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 08:21:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25347646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boomerbird10/pseuds/boomerbird10
Summary: When her bad mood starts to worry her friends, Ellie opens up to Nick for a much-needed vent about the frustrations of the week.
Relationships: Ellie Bishop/Nick Torres
Comments: 3
Kudos: 45





	I Told My Wrath

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hellokaelyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hellokaelyn/gifts).



> For my dear friend Britt. :)

"I was angry with my friend: / I told my wrath, my wrath did end. / I was angry with my foe: / I told it not, my wrath did grow."

\- William Blake, _Songs of Innocence and of Experience_

* * *

As she fishes her car keys out of her bag, Ellie sees in her peripheral vision that someone is approaching... and she knows exactly who it is without even glancing up.

It's got to be Nick.

"Have a good weekend," she says with false brightness, wearing a tight smile and keeping her eyes glued to her bag. She doesn't have much interest in staying to chat tonight, and the last thing she wants is to hear about her partner's latest girl-of-the-week. "I'll see you Monday."

Only letting out a brief sigh to convey disagreement with her dismissal, Nick doesn't answer. To Elllie's disappointment, though, he doesn't move away, either. Finally, his continued presence demands that Ellie follow social courtesy and greet him, and she looks up to make eye contact once her keys have been successfully retrieved.

She finds him leaning against her door, studying her features and looking mildly concerned. "Talk to me, Bishop," he requests quietly once he has her full attention.

"Not really in the mood, Nick." While she doesn't want to be rude, Ellie has had a rough week and honestly just wants to go home.

Her refusal doesn't appear to sway Nick in the slightest, because he doesn't budge. He's still blocking her door. "Don't give me that!" he complains, though his tone is lighter than his words. He's not upset with her, just worried about her. "You've been in a mood for three days now and being associated with the office grouch is starting to affect my otherwise cool reputation. What's going on?"

"Nothing important." The 'reputation' line makes Ellie roll her eyes and relax slightly, though, feeling a comfortingly familiar kind of incredulity... it's typical of her friend to make everything about his own social status.

Nick sees the tiny change in Ellie's posture and presses his advantage. "If it's not important, you should have no problem talking about it, right?"

"I don't have a _problem_ talking. I just don't want to," Ellie corrects, wrinkling her nose at him.

"Okay, okay, fine. You don't have to tell me. But I gotta know... is there anyone I need to beat up?" He gives her a teasing half-grin.

Ellie can't help responding to what she _knows_ is bait. "If there _was_ , I could take care of it myself," she insists.

"I mean, maybe, but you wouldn't look half as badass doing it." Nick's expression turns into a full, smug smile, and he crosses his arms to settle more comfortably against the car door. "Don't worry, though, it's not just you—no one would."

He's just so... _irritating_ , so full of himself, that Ellie can feel her bad mood starting to wane a little—he's pulling her out of her head whether she likes it or not.

Infuriatingly, it's hard to resist, even though he's not at all trying to hide what he's doing.

"Is that what you think?" she challenges, the hint of an unwilling smile turning up one corner of her mouth.

"That's what I _know_."

"Hate to break it to you, but the rest of us don't just sit around mooning over your muscles when you tackle someone, Nick."

This seems to be exactly the opening he was looking for, because Nick immediately gets the stupidest cat-that-ate-the-canary grin on his face and steps away from the car. "What muscles?" he asks. "These muscles?" He strikes a ridiculous pose to flex his upper arms. "These muscles?" With that, he rolls his hips, his always-tight shirt clinging to his abs and giving Ellie a front-row seat to the way they ripple as he moves. "Or is it _these_ muscles that you swear you're not staring at?"

Ellie humiliates herself by letting out a girlish giggle of surprise as Nick suddenly begins to do something that can only be described as twerking.

" _Nick_! You're making such a fool of yourself!" she cries in protest, reluctant amusement finally settling in as her dominant emotion. "Stop! I promise I'll talk, you idiot, just quit doing... whatever _that_ is, okay!?"

Correctly interpreting this as the victory that it is, Nick vigorously shakes his rear end one last time before stilling and straightening up. "Whatever, you liked it," he playfully insists. He doesn't give her a chance to argue before plucking her keys from her unresisting hand and unlocking the car with the remote. "Come on, it's hot out here. Let's sit in the AC while you tell me what's going on." He clicks his cheek and jerks his head in the direction of the door.

Finally giving in and no longer resisting, Ellie opens the door and settles into the driver's seat, watching as Nick does the same on the other side of the car.

He makes a big show of settling in to listen, clasping his hands in his lap and turning his gaze pleasantly toward her as if he can't imagine anything more fascinating than listening to her complain. "I'm all ears," he announces primly, dipping his head in an overly gracious nod.

"The sarcasm isn't really necessary," Ellie informs him, but her second eye roll in two minutes is accompanied by a smile that she doesn't bother to conceal. "But alright. I promised to talk..."

She meant what she said earlier; the things that are bothering her are neither serious nor urgent, and she would have been fine after a little R&R alone at home this weekend. As she explains her problems, though—a persistent headache, a costly error with her water bill, frustration with the team's lack of progress on their most recent case, a strange whine in her car's engine—they start to feel... smaller. Less significant. The mere act of speaking them out loud seems to ease their burden somehow, even though absolutely nothing has changed.

For his part, Nick loses the slightly facetious air of polite attention and settles in comfortably to listen as Ellie talks. She notices that his eyes never leave her face; he may have a tendency to be arrogant and self-centered sometimes, but she has never doubted how much he genuinely cares about her as a partner and friend.

When Ellie finishes, Nick nods thoughtfully and lets the silence sit for a moment. Then, rather than trying to offer any platitudes, he just shrugs. "Sucks," he finally decides, his tone sympathetic but not at all pitying.

His succinct bluntness pulls a real belly laugh out of Ellie, and she nods. "It does," she agrees, but her voice is light.

After all, those problems suck just a little less now, and she's grateful for it.

"Want to go to the gym with me?" Nick offers. "Exercise endorphins might help your headache."

"Not this time. I think I just want to go home and watch something mindless on tv, maybe eat a little junk food. Thank you, though," Ellie finishes, much warmer now than she was when they started the conversation.

They both know she's not just thanking him for the cardio invitation.

"Any time." Nick reaches down to pick up his bag from where he dropped it at his feet when he got in, and then he tugs on the door handle and climbs out. Immediately, though, he turns back around to lean through the still-open door. "Hey, Ellie?"

"Yeah?"

"You got this."

"I know." She gives him a sincere smile and her heart swoops lightly when his answering smile lights up his whole face, giving him a brief boyish look. "Have a good weekend, Nick."

"You, too."

Then he shuts the door and heads toward his own vehicle, leaving Ellie alone with her thoughts.

She drives home distractedly, occupied by the mystery of why her thoughts keep returning to one thing and one thing only: the way Nick's biceps looked as he flexed them for her in the evening light.


End file.
